June 30, 2008

Hi there, it's Tom again. Here's an Out Loud episode with video clips and pictures from the Erie, CO, Bark in the Park event that Yvonne mentioned in her earlier post (this episode is narrated by me, since Yvonne suffered her shoulder injury the night before and had to miss the fun).

Check out the "world's shortest pet parade" and the athletic exploits of Twiggy, Sparky, and friends!

Here at WME, Carmie is with me everywhere I go, so...I don't know if I can technically announce that I take my dog to work. Hmmm... I know that if I were working elsewhere, I'd push like crazy to institute the right to take my dog to work. Wouldn't you?

Over at Typepad, the company that created the web-based tool this blog uses, they have a nice post on this topic, and some great pics. Some of you may notice the Typepad "featured weblog logo" we have in the right-hand sidebar. We were fortunate enough to be on Typepad's homepage, back in the spring of last year.

Everything Typepad is where I learned that Wayne Pacelle, of the Humane society of the United States, is having a contest in honor of Take Your Dog to Work Day... hop over and "suggest a caption" for the adorable pic they have there. [hey, Wayne, thanks for the link to the "why more offices are going to the dogs" link to the CSMonitor article. Kewl!]

June 23, 2008

As most readers know, my dog Darcie is pushing 18 years of age. For an 18 year old she's pretty healthy. She can't see too well. She can't hear much and she doesn't like to take long walks like she used to. But hey, if I'm doing as well as Darcie when I'm 126 I'll be very happy. Like I'm going to make it that long.

Darcie's biggest problem is probably chronic pain from arthritis in her cervical spine. She can't go down steps very well so she doesn't sleep in our bedroom with us anymore. She can still go up steps, just not down because going down involves extending her neck to see the steps and that's too painful for her.

To have a veterinarian diagnose and treat this problem would probably involve several hundred dollars of radio-graphs, MRI's, other lab tests and the expense of lifelong pain medication.

June 22, 2008

Still recovering from a dislocated shoulder - rough-housing with the granddaughter in CO last week. It's definitely more fun being injured while fooling around, than any other way. I think of Miah's laughter and instantly feel better.

Traveling with my arm in a sling wasn't fun. Luckily, no mishaps, despite the rush of bodies intent on making their gate on time at Chicago's O'hare. Tom did play interference for me!

Once home, the reaction from Carmie and Wabby was interesting. They are both very attentive. I could not go with Tom when he walked Carmel, until today. Yes, even walking hurt -till today. Carmel was all confused. Despite her love of walking, she would almost rather not go if both Tom and I aren't present. The days Tom walked her by himself, they did not go far. Carmie turned toward home about half-way through her typical jaunt.

Not so, today. Today we took the long route (not the longest route; neither Carmie or I am up for that!). It was a lovely morning and our old pup was happy to have both of her people along.

June 19, 2008

We had a corporate jet load of dignitaries from St Louis where Purina is headquartered. Terry Block, the President of Purina North America and David Goodnight, DVM the PurinaCare CEO, spoke before the assembled troops and the local San Antonio media.

Terry spoke about Purina's commitment to bringing simple, comprehensive, pet health insurance to market and using Purina's relationship with literally millions of pet owners to help spread the word about PurinaCare.

June 13, 2008

One of the reasons I'm in Colorado this week (you knew I was in Colorado, right? I mentioned it somewhere, right? Well, if not...I'm in Erie, CO - despite American Airlines best efforts to keep me in Chicago! - visiting my daughter and granddaughter, and conducting a little business).

Part of the business is for this blog. Every year Erie, where my daughter lives, has an event that is very dog-friendly. In fact, Colorado is dog friendly to the max! My daughter takes Twiggy, her little, rambunctious greyhound, just about everywhere with her. No, really. To Home Depot. To restaurants and more. The folks in CO welcome dogs with open arms. Of course, you need to keep your dog on a lead and it needs to behave...which is more than I can say for some children!

Let's get back to Bark in the Park. According to this newspaper article, "parade begins at 9 a.m. on the corner of Wells and Briggs." After that, there will be competitions, contest, vendors, and an exciting demonstration by the Colorado Disc Dogs. All at Coal Creek Park in historical downtown Erie.

June 11, 2008

In late 2004 I was working in the New Products and New Business Development group at Purina. One morning my boss walked in and asked If I'd like to work on a new business development project dealing with pet health insurance. I said "sure, it will be the third time I've looked at pet health insurance while working for Purina, but what the heck, maybe the third time is the charm."

Last week our web site for PurinaCare Pet Health Insurance went live and we sold our first policy to my old boss at Purina; Tom Blair.

For the first year or so all we did was market research. We did gobs of focus groups with pet owners.

In this segment of S&S Out Loud, Dr. Larry and Dr. Bill Craig talk about practice options for new/women vets. Things have changed a lot since I was a veterinarian's assistant... and all for the better, as far as I'm concerned. Learn a bit more about how a big practice works ...

June 10, 2008

Wanted to share some info from a NY Times article on puppies behind bars. Actually, I found two articles, one from this month, and one from two years ago.

It's not what you think - the puppies aren't in jail. Well, they are, kind of. But, they're there for a really good reason. In the June '08 NY Times article, "Prison Puppies" we learn that a program being run by "Puppies Behind Bars" is getting inmates in several NY, New Jersey and Connecticut prisons to train puppies for the disabled. They are part of this program as a result of good behavior. You can visit the page and watch a video here.

How kewl is that? These are labs, and Golden Retrievers pretty much. Anyway, this article highlights women...in prison for one thing or another, and the way this program is helping them feel useful. One inmate is quoted saying, "One of the things prison usually means is being useless, being defined by our worst acts." Working with the puppies gives her purpose, she says.

"The tender mercy here," the article reports, "is that a dog does not know the difference between a prisoner and a model citizen. It responds to kindess, firmness, patience and consistency."

June 08, 2008

Back on May 24th, Dr. Larry and I talked about parasites. We discussed the internal kind - you know, creepy crawly kind (think worms, there's no 'nice' way to say it). At that time, we promised to talk about the external kind, ecto-parasites, mostly known as fleas and ticks.

Here's that discussion. And a good one it is... from San Antonia, TX where Dr. Larry was attending the internal medicine conference for vets called the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine practicitioners or ACVIM. NOTE: stay tuned to this blog for a big announcement later this week!!!

I'm so honored!

Let's meet at BlogPaws!

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